Botanical.com Home Page
Cranesbill Root, American
Botanical: Geranium maculatum (LINN.)
Family: N.O. Geraniaceae
---Synonyms---Alum Root. Spotted Cranesbill. Wild Cranesbill. Storksbill. Alum Bloom. Wild Geranium. Chocolate Flower. Crowfoot. Dove's-foot. Old Maid's Nightcap. Shameface.
---Parts Used---Dried rhizome, leaves.
---Habitat---Flourishes in low grounds and woods from Newfoundland to Manitoba, south to Georgia, Missouri and in Europe.
---Description---A perennial, grows from 1 to 2 feet high. The entire plant is erect and unbranched, more or less covered with hairs; the leaves deeply parted, each division again cleft and toothed, flowering April to June, colour pale to rosy purple, petals veined and woolly at base, fruit a beaked capsule, divided into five cells, each cell containing one seed, the root stocks 2 to 4 inches long thick with numerous branches for the next growth, outside brown, white and fleshy inside when fresh, when dried it turns to a darkish purple inside; no odour, taste strongly astringent, contains much tannin which is most active just before the plant flowers. This is the time the root should be collected for drying.
---Constituents---Tannic and gallic acid, also starch, sugar, gum, pectin and colouring matter.
---Medicinal Action and Uses---Styptic, astringent, tonic. Used for piles and internalbleeding. Excellent as an injection for flooding and leucorrhoea, and taken internally for diarrhoea, children's cholera, chronic dysentery; a good gargle.
The leaves are also used and give the greatest percentage of tannin and should be collected before the plant seeds.
---Dosages---15 to 30 grains. Infusion, 1 OZ. herb to 1 pint water. Fluid extract, 1/2 to 1 drachm. Geranin, 1 to 3 grains.
---Other Species---
The English herb Geranium dissectum has similar properties.
[Top]
A
-
B
-
C
-
D
-
E
-
F
-
G
-
H
-
I
-
J
-
K
-
L
-
M
N
-
O
-
P
-
Q
-
R
-
S
-
T
-
U
-
V
-
W
-
Y
-
Z
Common Name Index
A MODERN HERBAL Home Page
Bear in mind "A Modern Herbal" was written with the conventional wisdom of the early 1900's. This should be taken into account as some of the information may now be considered inaccurate, or not in accordance with modern medicine.
© Copyright Protected 1995- Botanical.com
|